


he can stomp on me and i’d still say thanks

by orphan_account



Category: High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (TV)
Genre: Coming Out, F/M, Fluff, Love Confessions, M/M, One-Shot, Ricky reads the situation wrong, Sexuality Crisis, Short, ok but nini and ej seem like they’d be good bffs, this is probably the worst thing I’ve writTen and posted to ao3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:29:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22031830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: "Oh my gosh, I'm in love with Ricky." Nini groaned, and slumped against E.J.'s shoulder."About that... Me too." E.J looked at her, sheepishly....aka ej and nini realize they’re both whipped for ricky
Relationships: E.J. Caswell & Nini Salazar-Roberts, Ricky Bowen/E.J. Caswell, Ricky Bowen/Nini Salazar-Roberts
Comments: 14
Kudos: 157





	he can stomp on me and i’d still say thanks

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired from ig. It didn’t cross to me ej n Ricky could b cute until I saw this one edit that was about ej and Nini being bffs rather than exes and the comment was like:
> 
> Nini: I might love Ricky.  
> E.j: same
> 
> AnD BOOM THIS FIF WAS BORN
> 
> also quick note: ej and Nini have already gone past the exes stage and r noe friends

Nini felt her heart sink as she saw Gina sitting in the room with Ricky. They were both smiling, eyes glued to each other as if nothing else existed but themselves. 

Feeling a sudden urge to cry, she quickly walked away, clutching the strap of her backpack tightly. She was _not_ going to have another breakdown over Ricky.Nini kept her eyes on the ground, and watched her sneakers so intently, she walked right into someone. That someone, turned out to be E.J.

"Sorry!" She squeaked. 

"Whoa! Watch where you’re going." E.J. scolded in a joking tone, grin on his face. He then noticed her upset face, and his face fell. "Oh. Are you okay?"

"I don’t really want to talk about it." Nini mumbled, looking at the floor again. Then she changed her mind. "Okay, I do want to talk about it, but I don’t know if you’re really the best person to talk about this with, considering our... Um, history."

E.J. looked at her, a slightly worried expression on his face. "This is about Ricky, isn’t it?" When Nini neither confirmed or denied it, he raised an eyebrow. "You said we could tell each other anything. Spill." 

She relented with a sigh. "Promise you won’t tell anyone." 

"I promise." 

Nini led E.J. outside, and threw her backpack onto the lawn, then collapsed onto the grass. "I hate him. So much. Ugh." She groaned, staring up at the sky. The grass tickled her cheek and she felt the urge to scratch her face. 

"What did he do this time?" E.J. sat down next to her. He toyed with the buttons of his letterman jacket, looking curious. 

"I thought we maybe had a  thing,  but there he was singing a song to Gina. And the amount of romantic tension was _high_." She sat up, and burrowed her face into her hands. "And I was just getting over him."

"That’s where I think you're wrong." E.J. interrupted her wallows. "You've never gotten over him." 

“What?” Nini spluttered. “I was with you for the whole summer— I— we were dating.” Her voice grew higher as she finished her sentence and her fake British accent began to come out. 

“Okay, but our whole “relationship” never seemed romantic now that I’m looking back on it.” E.J. snorted, his eyes twinkling. 

“You told me you loved me.” Nini responded, disbelief in her voice. 

“Yeah, but I didn’t mean that romantically.” E.J. reprimanded, holding his hands up. “And I still do love you as a friend even though you never said it back.” 

”You stole my phone.” Nini smacked him. 

“I was jealous of Ricky. If you started dating him again, you’d never make time for me!” E.J. huffed, sticking his tongue out.

“Okay, how did I even ever see us in a romantic relationship?” Nini asked, incredulous. 

“Anyways— throughout our whole relationship you were still in love with Ricky the whole time.” E.J. grinned. “I have some evidence for that. You kept your contact photo the same for him— and it was a photo of you and him together, you still have photos of him on your wall and your eyes always go to him if he’s in the room. I could go on.” He smirked. 

Nini opened her mouth to make a rebuttal, but no words came out. She closed her mouth, and then formed a small ‘o’ with her lips. E.J.’s triumphant smirk deepened.

”Oh my gosh, I’m in love with Ricky.” Nini groaned and slumped onto E.J.’s shoulder. He seemed to tense up, and Nini looked up at him. His smirk had disappeared, and suddenly he looked nervous. 

He opened his mouth to speak, shut it, and took a deep breath. 

“Yeah, um, about that...” E.J. mumbled quietly. “Me too.” 

“Wait, what?” Nini lifted her head off of his shoulder, eyes round. He began to nervously bounce his leg. 

“I— I think I like him too. As in like-like him.” E.J.’s voice was low, and he was uncomfortably glancing around to make sure no one could be listening in. There was a brief silence, and E.J.'s face had gone from nervous to a maybe-this-was-a-bad-idea look. 

“Jesus, we both have a terrible taste in boys.” Nini finally said, and E.J. laughed, looking relieved. 

“I know right? Ricky is sometimes, like, such an idiot. He could’ve had someone as amazing as you but instead chose someone like Gina. Not that’s she’s bad— but I’m still kinda mad that she poured her drink on me at homecoming.” E.J. snorted, flicking Nini. “Ricky is so adorable when he’s an idiot, and unfortunately for him he’s usually adorable, which means he’s also usually an idiot.” 

“Ricky could step on me and I’d still thank him.” Nini whined.

“Me too— we’re both so gone for him.” They stared at each other and laughed, and E.J. pulled Nini into a tight side-hug.   
  


  
Ricky walked out of East High, half-listening to Gina rave on about something.   
  
Hearing laughter, he turned and saw Nini and E.J. hugging on the grass. Unease settled into his chest. She looked so happy, cheeks pink from laughing. E.J. turned his head to see Ricky awkwardly standing there and somehow reddened and paled at the same time. Nini wrapped her arms around him, and looked at Ricky, with a protective look in her eyes. 

They were back together?

Gina suddenly pulled at his arm, and Ricky let her drag him away, feeling numb.   
  


**Author's Note:**

> if I see another one of y’all bashing ej u gonna catch these hands 
> 
> let me know ur thoughts and giggles in the comments!! should I write more hsm stuff?
> 
> hAh edit: just realized how awkwardly written this is bc it’s very unedited


End file.
